Plain English Meaning
A printed chart that guides you through a visual approach into a busy airport using easy-to-spot landmarks, suggested altitudes, and a defined path — used when the weather is good enough to see where you're going.
Full Definition
A charted visual flight procedure (CVFP) is a published visual approach to a runway at certain towered airports, used by IFR aircraft when weather is at or above prescribed minimums (typically a ceiling of at least 500 feet above the minimum vectoring altitude and visibility of 3 statute miles or more). The chart depicts prominent visual landmarks, recommended altitudes, courses, and reporting points to help pilots fly a consistent, noise-sensitive, or terrain-conscious path to the runway while maintaining visual contact with the ground or the preceding aircraft.
Context Anchor
Seen on FAA approach charts and in instrument procedure training when discussing visual procedures that have a published route instead of being left entirely to pilot judgment.
Derivation
Charted means depicted on a published chart; visual means flown by reference to the ground rather than instruments alone; procedure means a defined sequence of steps. The term simply names what it is: a visual approach that has been formally charted.
Why Pilots Care
Gives pilots a safe, repeatable path that reduces controller workload and helps meet noise or traffic restrictions during visual approaches.
Intuition Check
“Visual” does not mean casual or improvised here. In a CVFP, the flying is visual because you use outside references, but the route itself is still published, charted, and assigned by air traffic control.
Example Sentence 1
Approaching LaGuardia in clear weather, the crew was cleared for the Expressway Visual Runway 31, a CVFP that follows the Long Island Expressway to the airport.
Example Sentence 2
ATC assigned the CVFP to keep arriving traffic clear of the nearby military training area.